Monday, July 11, 2005

But Mbeki travels alone. Civic leaders in South Africa - from Nelson Mandela to Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Cosatu, the powerful trade union congress, opposition parties and even members of Mbeki's cabinet - have expressed outrage at human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

Mbeki and his fast-diminishing coterie in the ruling ANC have refused to budge. Even when senior South African election observers were beaten up by pro-Mugabe youths in the 2002 elections, Mbeki ensured that the team declared the election free and fair.

In November last year, after Tutu questioned 'quiet diplomacy', Mbeki attacked him as having no respect for the truth. On its website the ANC sought to discredit Tutu, accusing him of having been a struggle hero of the West and white South Africans - not South Africa's black masses. Last year Mugabe called Tutu 'an angry, evil and embittered little bishop'.

Even Mandela has declared that people like Mugabe 'want to die in power because they have committed crimes'.

Cosatu - the country's biggest trade union federation and an ally of the ANC - has been accused of recklessness for its Zimbabwe human rights campaign. After being kicked out of the country on a fact-finding mission last year, secretary- general Zwelinzima Vavi said: 'Nepad - the New Partnership for Africa's Development - will stand no chance if a government such as Zimbabwe willingly disregards its own laws in this manner. The continent will go nowhere if its leaders can act with impunity.'

Mbeki knows this. He knows too that he stands alone in South Africa on Zimbabwe. The business community, which backed 'quiet diplomacy', now calls on him to speak out.

At the centre of this is his belief that calls for Mugabe's departure are racially motivated. He will not be lectured to by the West.

'It is clear some within Zimbabwe and elsewhere in the world, including our country, are following the example set by [Ronald] Reagan and his advisers to "treat human rights as a tool" for overthrowing the government of Zimbabwe and rebuilding Zimbabwe as they wish. In modern parlance, this is called regime change,' he said in a letter after the Commonwealth meeting.

In just the past few weeks of mass evictions in Zimbabwe about 300 people have died. More than 1.5 million are homeless. All are black. Where is Mbeki's solidarity with them?